JavaScript is eating the world

It’s official. JavaScript is the most popular programming language of 2016 and, right now, the most popular programming language in the world.

According to the annual Stack Overflow user poll, which surveyed almost 50,000 programmers, more people use JavaScript than any other programming language.

What started as a simple scripting language in 1995, JavaScript (which was originally built in just 10 days) has now become one of the most important technologies. It powers some of the world’s leading websites, mobile applications and desktop software.

Results for the 2016 Stack Overflow poll, based on 49,397 responses.

JavaScript in the web browser

JavaScript and the web have had a long history. JavaScript is what made things interactive (unless it was, heaven forbid, Flash), and it allowed websites to have advanced features not offered by HTML and CSS.

JavaScript on the web has come a long way and can now be used to develop powerful web applications with the responsiveness of desktop software.

JavaScript frameworks such as AngularJS (developed by Google) React (developed by Facebook) and EmberJS (backed by large companies such as LinkedIn) have catapulted JavaScript over the past five years from a handy scripting language to a fully-fledged programming language to rival any other.

JavaScript in the backend

JavaScript is no longer constrained to
the web browser. Node.js allows you to write your backend (or server-side)
logic using JavaScript, and has been embraced by companies such as Netflix,
Yahoo, Medium, Uber and more.

Databases such as MongoDB let you
store your data in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), and query using a
familiar JavaScript syntax, bringing JavaScript the whole way down the stack –
from frontend to backend and even database.

JavaScript on mobile devices

JavaScript is the language that powers the business logic of these apps, and using frameworks such as Ionic Framework provide near-native user interfaces.

Cordova by Apache allows Hybrid HTML5 apps to be "packaged" for the App Stores, creating a bridge between the device's native hardware and APIs, and the internal web browser rendering the app.

Here’s a fun fact: Did you know that Cordova itself is also built in JavaScript, using Node.js?

JavaScript on the desktop

Software on your Mac or PC were usually always built in languages such as C++, C# or Java but with tools such as Electron it is now possible to use JavaScript, HTML and CSS to build cross-platform desktop apps.

Electron, developed by GitHub, is to desktop apps what Cordova is to mobile apps. Although Electron 1.0 was only released in early 2016, it has already seen some significant application adoption, with Microsoft releasing a version of Visual Studio (VSCode) based on Electron.

Where to next?

One thing is for sure, JavaScript is not going anywhere.

Most large technical companies are investing heavily in JavaScript and, although we are seeing many important frameworks and tools being released today, this will undoubtedly increase in the coming years.

We feel JavaScript will be the future of cross-platform development, and there is evidence of this already happening.

There is a very good reason why JavaScript is the most popular programming language in the world, and we believe this shows no signs of slowing down.

Chat to the JavaScript experts

At inoutput, developing cross-device and cross-platform software is one of our specialties, and we have been actively developing HTML5 hybrid apps for more than five years.

Give us a call on (03) 9016 3066 or send us a message to find out how we can help materialise your JavaScript projects.